The MRC Unit The Gambia (MRCG) will be hosting a ‘Bridging Biobanking and Biomedical Research across Europe and Africa’ (B3Africa) international workshop from 11-13 April 2016 at Kairaba Hotel.
The broad objective of the workshop is to identify legal and ethical issues and define concepts for the regulatory framework to be applied within an Information Technology (IT) platform that will be developed for the project. While the first 2 days will be dedicated to closed sessions within project partners, invitations have been extended to more participants for the third day session on “Biobanking and ethics: the future landscape for European and African research”.

The 3-day workshop will attract over 18 international participants from African and European institutions, including B3Africa project partners, ‘Use Case’ institutes, MRCG Researchers and members of The Gambia Government/MRCG Joint Ethics Committee (EC).

Given the important role that Biobanks play in Biomedical and Public Health Research it is anticipated that the outcome of the workshop will contribute towards enhancing collaborations across Africa and European Researchers and Institutions.

The workshop will be covered in local newspapers and aired on Gambia Radio and Television Services.

http://www.b3africa.org/?page_id=8
B3Africa is a European Commission Horizon 2020 funded project with two strategic aims:
1. Create a harmonized ethical and legal framework between European and African partner institutions. A common ethical and legal framework is essential for a trustworthy informatics platform that will enable the sharing of bioresources and data and will also consolidate cooperation in biobanking between Africa and Europe.
2. Provide an “out-of-the-box” informatics solution (the eB3Kit) that facilitates data management, processing, and sharing and can also be used under challenging networking conditions in Africa and Europe.

Partners of the B3Africa project are: Sveriges Lantbruksuniversitet, Sweden; Biobanking and Biomolecular Resources Research Infrastructure Consortium, Austria; Karolinska Institutet, Sweden; Centre for Research Ethics & Bioethics at Uppsala University, Sweden; University of the Western Cape, South Africa; Makerere University, Uganda; Stellenbosch University, South Africa; International Agency for Research on Cancer, France; International Livestock Research Institute, Kenya; Medizinische Universität Graz, Austria; and Institute of Human Virology Nigeria.

In addition, selected members of the http://www.b3africa.org/?page_id=8 initiative will benefit from the eB3Kit: Breast Care International, Ghana; National Cancer Institute, Lithuania; Wroclaw Research Centre EIT+, Poland and the MRC Unit The Gambia.

To know more about the project and subscribe to the newsletter: http://www.b3africa.org/?page_id=8